Forever Gentle on my Mind
by J. Lucy-Daisuke
Summary: Just a simple oneshot. What's left after a twentyyear absence? Whose doors are still open, and who'd rather forget?


DISCLAIMER: I don't own Lupin III…. So, um…. There…. Yeah.

Hey! Another one-shot from me…. My shortest Lupin work to date, by far! It's not even the length of an average chapter of mine! So please enjoy, and I'd really love feedback on it.

Forever Gentle on my Mind

"Sign here… And here…. And here," the lawyer instructed his client. The client nodded his head numbly in agreement, obviously more concerned with the task at hand. He knew what to do, anyway… He was older, but he was no idiot.

"Thank you very much for your help in supporting the ICPO… You're a free man now, Mister Lupin… So any ideas what you're going to do with your life?" the judge asked, leaning forward and staring down at the middle-aged thief.

"Oh, a few," Lupin remarked quietly.

After getting together the belongings he had accumulated in his two decades in prison and changing into a suit provided by the prison, he found a cab awaiting him outside. Inside the cab was a man in a black kimono, with his arms crossed and his hair tied back and running down to mid-back. He opened his eyes and turned to Lupin, and gave a small smirk. Lupin could see a small scar running down one eye, but he would not comment upon this.

"I thought you'd never show," Goemon said, scooting over when Lupin seated himself in the cab and moving his cane from one hand to the other.

Lupin looked down at the cane wordlessly, then back up at Goemon, "What…."

"Altercation from a few years back," Goemon responded. "I mainly do teaching at the dojo, now."

Lupin nodded and smiled, "What do you say to a drink?"

"I can cover the bill, if—"

"Heh, forget about it… You need that money for your kids. I'm working for the government now; the pay's pretty good. Not what I used to make, but hey, the dental plan's better," Lupin reached into his suitcase and pulled out a photo of three small children, and glanced at Goemon. "I'd like an updated picture, if nothing else, Goemon. Your kids have got to be a heck of a lot older than this, now…. The youngest has got to be, like, eight at the most, I'm guessing."

"I can do that," Goemon nodded.

"Where're Jigen and Fujiko?" Lupin asked with a raised eyebrow. "Well, I guess I shouldn't be surprised… I haven't seen either of them in years… Hell, Zenigata's visited the most out of anyone!"

"Didn't he have something to do with you getting out of prison?"

"Heh, yeah, go figure… He's the reason I get in there, and when I finally am in there, he does nothing but lobby to get me out for years! Crap, I even got Christmas cards from him! The man doesn't even celebrate Christmas, at least I don't think. Just when I think I figured out our relationship, he throws me another curve ball… Speaking of weird relationships, I'd like to see Fujiko, if you know where she is. I think we can put off that drink for a while."

"That I do. What about Jigen?"

"What about him?" Lupin grumbled.

"Hm," Goemon frowned at this statement, and looked out the window at the passing scenery, "I know where they are, but I'm not sure if you want to see her…"

"Heh, what, did her boobs finally hit gravity?" Lupin chuckled and leaned back. "Goemon, trust me… I haven't seen a real pair in so long it really doesn't bother me anymore."

"It's not that," Goemon averted his eyes to the floorboard, and Lupin also leaned over, resting his arm upon his knee.

"What is it, then, Goemon?"

"Eh… I would rather not say."

"Oh, God, she's not dead, is she?" Lupin paled at the thought of this. "If you take me to a headstone and don't warn me beforehand, I'll beat you with that cane. I'm old but not feeble."

"No… I will show you, but it's quite a drive. It's out of this province."

"Good, I haven't been on a trip like that in years…."

"Do you think you'd be allowed out of the prefecture?"

"Goemon, c'mon, buddy! It's me! I'm an employee of the government now, not a slave! Besides, I think they know as well as I do that I'm not as in shape as I used to be… Sure I managed to stay thin, but most of the muscle… Eck, totally gone to hell… How about you? You hiding a spare tire under that obi of yours, eh?"

"Hm, I will not satisfy you with an answer," a red-faced Goemon replied.

"Eh he he… Well, this is good… Half the team's already back together!"

"Lupin, there is no team anymore."

"Goemon, I'm being hypothetical…. Please, I don't need the stone face now. What I need is rest… Maybe a small party."

"With women and alcohol, I would guess. Things that my wife would kill me for if she were to know if I took part in them," Goemon gave way to a small smirk. "But what she does not know will not kill her."

"Eh…. I can't stomach alcohol anymore, and the women," Lupin looked offward and gave a small sigh. "Twenty years… I mean, that's a long time."

"Did you substitute?"

"Goemon, I'm agile, but a cell's small, and I'm a tiny guy. Of course I was a catch—I have all of my teeth," Lupin answered plainly, choosing to ignore Goemon's stunned expression. "I couldn't drink, gave up on women and took up smoking... Prison's turned me into Jigen."

Goemon said nothing, but looked out at the scenery blurring past him like ink that his children tended to spread liberally throughout the house, especially on the walls. It was difficult for him to face Lupin… How Lupin could stand him was beyond his knowledge. He had in the end broken down and ratted out his partner, after all. He was married at the time, however, and had a child on the way. Lupin had said that he had understood Goemon's tough choice, and he would have done the same, but Goemon knew better. To Lupin, Goemon was his family, and Goemon had betrayed him.

"This is the place," Goemon said to the cab driver after a long silence between the two old friends and about an hour's worth of driving, and passed him a few bills while Lupin stuck his head out of the window and stared at the two-story structure with the gate about it. What caught his eye the most were the children's toys in the front yard.

"So…. So she…. How many?" Lupin asked as he continued to scan about the house.

"Two with her husband. One's a small child, a girl about five, and the other is around fifteen now. He's just learning to drive," Goemon said as he noted the dented car in the driveway.

"Wow…. I…. I would've never thought; her and kids," Lupin murmured and stepped out of the car. "Well, she dated enough old guys, it had to happen…. She had to trap some old geezer with kids. That's just how she is."

"….Lupin…." Goemon closed his eyes and dreaded knowing that he would have to enter the house with Lupin. He sincerely did not want to be there when Lupin saw Fujiko, but he knew that he was the thief's only support. So he followed Lupin in past the open gates, and helped to prop Lupin up when he tripped on a bike in the front yard.

"If you're from the temple, we don't want you here!" both looked upward as Lupin attempted to untangle his foot and were greeted by a young boy with dark hair and sharp features.

"J-Jigen?" Lupin choked as he recognized the boy's unmistakable Mediterranean features. Lupin looked back at Goemon with confusion, and then saw her walk out, with a little girl in her arms. She didn't see him right away, though.

"What did I tell you about taking the car without asking?" Fujiko asked in a fluster.

The young boy rolled his eyes and heaved a sigh, "Jeeze… You got to go to all of the fun places when you were my age and you freak if I go to the gas station on the corner. I'll be back tonight, I promise. I'm just going out with Rikichi for a bit…. Hey, Mom, you want me to take care of the religious freaks?"

"Mom?" Lupin looked at the boy, and back at Fujiko, who nearly dropped the young girl as she realized who else stood in her yard.

"Lupin!"

"You…. And Jigen….?"

"She reached out to Jigen for support when you were sent to prison," Goemon explained. "But that turned into more, as you can see."

"Friggin' apparently," Lupin murmured.

"W-would you like to come in?" Fujiko stepped aside, and the little girl buried her face in her mother's shoulder as the two men passed by. "I heard you were getting out today, b-but I didn't think you'd come here." With this said, she gave Goemon a glare that made Ishikawa shudder with surprise.

"I'm gonna get Daddy!" the little girl announced and hopped out of her mother's arms and into a back room.

"She's a big daddy's girl," Fujiko said with a nervous laugh. "Would you two l-like a drink?"

"Yeah…. I think I need it… Nothing with booze unless you want me to puke on your floor," Lupin sunk down into a seat in the living room and pulled out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter from a pocket in the old jacket he wore.

"Eh… No smoking… Sorry, the carpet's new," Fujiko said with her best calm tone.

"…Fine, your house, not mine," Lupin tossed the cigarettes back in his pocket, then added in a mutter. "Jigen's life, not mine."

"Hey, what'd you wanna show me, princess?" Lupin heard the familiar gruff voice from down the hall, and then the giggle of a little girl. Jigen stepped out from the hall with the child on his shoulders, and Lupin had to do a double-take when he realized exactly how much gray hair the gunman had accumulated. But then again, Jigen was almost a decade older than him.

"The monkey man!" she pointed, and Lupin calmly turned his head at the sound of the insult.

"Lupin," Jigen yelped with disbelief. He slowly lifted the little girl down onto the ground, never taking his eyes off of Lupin as he did so. "Why don't you help your mom out in the kitchen, eh?"

"Okay!" she chuckled, and ran into the kitchen.

"She's cute…. She takes after her mother. Your son looks like a pain in the ass, though," Lupin said as Jigen seated himself in a recliner in between an ever-uneasy Goemon and Lupin.

"He's a good kid, just gets into his trouble. He takes a lot after me," Jigen said with unmasked apprehension in his voice. "Listen, Lupin…"

"I've done twenty years of listening, Jigen, I'm not going to listen anymore. And I'm not going to kick your ass in front of your daughter, even though you look like I could take you and win. All I want is to clear up some facts…. Like why you never visited me."

"I was…. Listen, it's not like I planned to just take Fujiko! We just…. We became friends, and—We got married about four years after you were put in. Then, we had a kid… And I got a job with the military, and—"

"You went back to the military?"

"I had no friggin' choice! I had a wife and kid to look after! So, yeah, I swallowed my pride and went to the U.S. military base in Hokkaido."

"I swallowed a hell of a lot more than pride, you bastard," Lupin said viciously. "I'm not envious of what you have, Daisuke, not at all. I think you're a rat bastard for setting me up! You knew the cops were coming, and you didn't do crap! You set it up with them! You betrayed me, Jigen, after all of that, you betrayed me. I just want to know why."

"A woman," Jigen answered quietly.

"A…. ha ha HA! Oh, you gotta love irony!" Lupin threw his head back and laughed. "You getting involved with a woman! HA HA!"

"Lupin," Fujiko emerged quietly with her daughter clinging onto her leg. "I think we need to talk…"

"Fujiko! Damn it!" Jigen shouted and rose from the recliner. "Don't you dare—"

"Listen, I owe him the truth," Fujiko closed her eyes and sighed. She bent down in front of the little girl, and embraced her tightly. "Why don't you go up to your room?"

"Why don't you just put me on Mars? You're sending me everywhere else!" the child said with an exasperated sigh, and clomped up the stairs, soon out of sight.

"I was the one who set up the meeting with the cops," Fujiko began.

"Wha… Fujiko… Wh-Why? I-mean…. You screwed me over before, but never that bad!" Lupin looked to Goemon, who more than ever wanted to use his accumulated ninja techniques to disappear into the wall, and then to Jigen, who had seated himself once again and stared downward at his shoes.

"I was caught, and I…. Listen, I was pregnant and I didn't want to have a baby in jail!" Fujiko shouted, and tears began to fall as she spoke. Lupin cringed as he watched Jigen rise and comfort her by embracing her tightly and muttering to her quietly.

"Pregnant?" Lupin repeated numbly. "Whose baby? Do you even have a clue?"

Fujiko gave a nod and wiped her eyes, but broke down as she went to speak once again.

"It's okay, I'll tell him. You go upstairs, too, okay?" Jigen whispered. "I'll take care of it. I always do, don't I?" Fujiko nodded in response and headed up the stairs, but her crying still could be heard.

"She tried to have it abort it, but Goemon found her in time and I talked her out of it. I told her I'd help her to take care of him," Jigen began with a sigh. "He… I… He looks a lot like his dad. And he and his brother get along great."

"Oh my God… It's not mine, isn't it?" Lupin whispered, and looked to Goemon. Goemon simply looked off to where he heard a sound from one of the front rooms.

"He's home now. You wanna meet him?" Jigen rose as they heard a door open.

"Yeah," Lupin nodded.

The boy was almost identical to Lupin at twenty, save for the haircut, which was a little longer than he would have grown it. The choice in clothing was also much different than anything that he would have worn, Lupin noted. Jeans and a button-up shirt…. The uniform for Japanese teenagers everywhere. Lupin said nothing as the boy entered, tossing a bag from shopping aside, but only stood, stunned at the clone before him.

"Hey, umm…. C'mere, I'd like you to meet someone," Jigen moved the boy over to Lupin, and cleared his throat.

The meeting was an awkward one, but the two had much in common. Lupin the Forth even knew some of the tricks that his father did, much to Lupin's amusement. When night fell Goemon was glad to see that things had mended to some degree, although not fully. The rift between Lupin and Jigen would never be fully healed, but the samurai took some comfort in knowing that the bloodlust was gone, and that Lupin, who before had thought he had no one on the outside world save for an old police officer and a wounded ex-bodyguard, now had someone else to live for.

"Come back whenever you feel like it. And if you need anything, let us know. I know how you are with your pride, and I don't want that getting in the way," Fujiko said softly as Lupin went to leave with Goemon. Fujiko embraced him about the neck, and Lupin closed his eyes—He had missed that so much. But at least she was in competent hands now, he felt.

"Don't worry, I will," he slipped out of her grasp and into the doorway of the Jigen household, and then was gone.

"…..You're awfully quiet."

"Heh, that's news coming from you, Goemon," Lupin said with a chuckle. "I'm just thinking… That's all."

"Oh? About anything in particular?"

"Yeah…. There aren't any other secrets I should know about, are there? Just let me know now in that case, Goemon."

"….I'm a methamphetamine addict and I am carrying on an affair with a fifteen-year-old boy who's a student of mine…"

"…I—"

"I'm only joking," said Goemon with a small smile. "You should really lighten up, Lupin."

"That's rich, coming from you."

"I have my own question, Lupin," Goemon said after a pause. "Why did you never try to escape?"

"I did try… But nothing worked. They brought a bunch of young kids in, ones who knew me better than Zenigata. And, well, after a while you just get tired, and you lose interest when there's no one on the outside waiting for you," Goemon grew concerned at the look of sadness on Lupin's face, and the thief turned to him and gave a hopeful smile as the cab halted in front of a suburban Japanese home. "Well, this is my stop, so I'll see you around, Goemon. Say hello to the wife and kids for me."

Goemon gave a nod and watched Lupin exit the back of the cab, and nodded his farewell.

"Hey, my Grandpa said you were coming!" Lupin turned about and saw a young woman, no older than his son, smiling as she set down a bag of groceries and took his suitcase. "Let me get that…"

"No, I don't need any—"

"If it's because I'm a girl, then get over that… I'm just as strong as any man in my jujitsu class," she explained, and glanced at him a moment as she took his bag from his hands. "Wow, you're a cutie for being older."

"….Thank you?" Lupin raised an eyebrow and picked up her discarded bag of groceries from the concrete and followed her into the house.

"Grandpa, we're home!" she shouted through the house. "…He must be out with some other old Interpol officers…. Old friends, probably…."

"So, you're his granddaughter…. What's your name?"

"Kyoko… My parents had about as much originality as my grandparents."

"Ah, come on now; don't be so hard on your grandfather. He thought of a lot of great schemes over the years to try and catch me…. Some even almost worked!"

Kyoko gave a small smile and led Lupin up this his room, "You'll be staying here, Mr. Ex-thief."

"Thanks," Lupin gave a nod of gratitude and grasped onto the door with one hand as he stood talking to Kyoko in the hall. "And for what it's worth, I think you've got a very lovely name, Kyoko. Have a good night."

"Yeah, you, two," Kyoko murmured and walked back down the hall and then disappeared down the stairwell. Lupin shut his door, gave a whistle and fell back onto his bed, and then shut his eyes. Where to go from here now, he wondered. His best friend had raised his son and taken the only woman he had ever truly adored, Goemon was probably crazy and Lupin hadn't realized it, and he was in the home of his old enemy.

"….I wonder if he's got any tea. I missed good tea," Lupin said to himself after a moment and rose from the mattress.


End file.
